Currently, a wide range of portable consumer electronics (e.g., mobile electronic devices) that are not dedicated to still or video imaging provide increasingly important imaging capabilities. These portable consumer electronics may include, for example, smart phones, laptops, notebooks, tablet computers, and camcorders. These portable consumer electronics are often constrained in both x-y area and z-height or thickness such that the camera included therein must be designed to meet the sizing constraints while providing adequate still and video image quality. Such a camera may be mounted in a module (or assembly) referred to as a “micro” camera module. The micro camera module may have a camera enclosure housing a camera with a front portion having a lens oriented towards a front opening in a front portion of the enclosure through which the camera takes images. The opening may be covered by a transparent camera cover.
Typically, a camera module in a portable consumer electronic device includes heat generating components such as an image sensor and one or more motor drivers for voice coil motors. These components may be mounted on or close to the rear portion of the camera module.